First Stop

The first few days have been ones worth reporting about. On Monday I hiked to Springvilla and found an empty churchyard to throw my hammock up in, I was pretty well worn out, but my feet were the real problem. I had to start putting moleskin on a mere three hours into the hike on monday. By the time I set up camp that night I had the start of some very good blisters on the balls of my feet. The next morning I woke with the sun and got another five and a half miles or so behind me. At this point I had given up on the idea of making it to Columbus by Wednesday and was JUST going to try and make it a little town called Crawford that was about 6 more miles down the road. Just as I was about to crawl into the woods to find some shade, a red pickup with an old couple pulled up on the road next to me and asked where I was going. The short version is that they had turned around to check on me and so they drove me to Crawford and bought me some food and a cold water at the comveniance store. I spent the midday at the conveniance store, had some great conversations with the folks there and other people passing through. Richard the husband of the manager told me that the drugs are pretty bad in this area and that I didn't want to be in the wrong spot after dark. He pointed me towards a baptist churchyard that had a well lit payground that I could throw up my hammock in and sleep for the night. As I was getting ready to set up at he church a car drove up and I started talking to the driver who turned out to be the pastor of the church. We talked for a while and discovered that my little brother and his daughter know each other from school. Lasty night he let me stay here in their youth house. A mentor of mine and his wife unexpectedly drove down looking for me and brought me some fresh supplies in the evening. This morning i helped out with vacation bible school and had a blast. The church has been amazingly open and accepting to me, it is a huge blessing to start this trip with such an amazing welcome. I plan on hanging out here a day or maybe two longer depending on how my blisters heal and then I will take off again in the direction of columbus and see where I end up next. God has been providing fo me in some really neat way and showing me some interesting things already, I cannot wait to see what the rest of this adventure holds.

Got started this morning. Am taking a break from midday sun at chris's work. Will update more from columbus midweek if all goes to schedual.

The Second Chapter

Most of you do not know, but this is a long awaited post. For some time now I have had a mostly unspoken dream. Most of the time i have simply described it as "my walk". For those of you who are familiar with what I have been wanted to do you should know that I am planning on leaving on Monday. For those of you who need a little more information that that let me outline this walk of mine and why I am wanting to set out on it.

The idea for this walk just kind of came to me three or four years ago. I was reading in the gospels where Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs with no money and told them to go to a town, stay there in one place and eat was was fed them. If they were not received then they were to walk to the edge of the town, beat the dust from their shoes and keep walking. As I was reading this I remember thinking, "Man, that is really cool going out and having the faith that the community, the church, will take care of you. Why can't we still do that?" This thought was a pretty depressing one to me. As I have grown in my faith in God, my faith in the church that is supposed to be his bride has not grown at the same, or even a fraction of the same rate. This was when the idea for the walk was born. Perhaps the reason that we cannot still go out and rely solely on the church for our support and sustenance in the day to day journey is because we do not ever try. Perhaps this journey would teach me to see that the church is more than a dying cultural and religious structure devoid of the faith and life that Christ calls her to. Perhaps just by my going and rattling preconceptions and routines I can play some infinitesimal part in keeping her vibrant and alive. Perhaps all of my disillusionment with the American corporate church structure is grossly unfounded. I do not know but starting Monday I guess we will try and see.

Mind You, I do not pretend to think that I am some sort of apostle , but I am a follower of Christ who happens to have quite a few big questions. I also grew up reading lots, one of my favorite books last year was Under the Overpass and one of my favorites in middle school was Peter Jenkins Walk Across America. This get out there and experience life mentality has always appealed to me. Add to that an undergraduate degree in Sociology, a discipline that does lots of in depth field study, and a love of camping. Now you might begin to see where I cam coming from, and why I plan on going this direction for a while.

If you would like to follow along, first of all know that my spelling will be terrible, if you need any proof just go read some of the entries in this blog from my 2006 trip to Thailand. Secondly you should know that this blog will be my main source of communication as I go. I plan on walking for half of the week and stopping at churches along my path for the other half. So if all goes to plan (insert copious laughter) i will be updating this blog once a week from my host churches, wherever that happens to be that week.